
Qass. 
Book. 



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AN OEATION 



CHARACTER km PUBLIC SERVICES 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



deliyej;ed by 
in bryan hall, chicago, ill. 




CHICAGO: 

PRINTED AT THE METHODIST BOOK DEPOSITORY. 
1867. 



E 






Chicago, Sept. 27, 1867. 
Rev. C. H. Fowler: 

Dear Sir, — The undersigned, a committee acting on behalf of your 
numerous friends, who are desirous of preserving in a permanent form 
your analysis of the character and eulogy of the life of the late President 
Lincoln, delivered originally at the services memorial of his death, in the 
First M. E. Church of Chicago, and afterwards repeated by request of Hons. 
F. C. Sherman, J. B. Rice, E. C. Earned, John M. Wilson, and other distin- 
guished citizens of the city, in Bryan Hall, on the day of the interment at 
Springfield, of the remains of the lamented dead — would respectfully re- 
quest a copy of the manuscript for publication. 

Hon. Grant Goodrich, 

R. F. QUEAL, 

A. E. Bishop, 
Fernando Jones, 
E. n. Gammon, 

T. M. BURKITT, 

C. Trudeau, 

B. Halbrook. 



Hon. Grant Goodrich, R. F. Queal, A. E. Bishop, Fernando Jones, E. H. 
Gammon, T. M. Burkitt, C. Trudeau, B. Halbrook. 

Genilemen, — Your request for a copy of the manuscript of the address 
on Mr. Lincoln, delivered by me, is received. I thank you for your con- 
sideration of its author, and am pleased with your interest in the memory 
of the [/reat President, and herewith furnish the desired copy. 

Respectfully yours, C. H. Fowler. 

Centenary Parsonage, Chicago, Oct. 1, 1867. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



Four 3-ears ago Illinois gave to tlie nation a President, to 
the world a hero, and to humanity a model. To-day she 
reeeivcs him into her aching bosom a sainted martyr, and 
covenants, before God and in the solemn presence of the 
opening infinite future, that for the nation, and for the 
world, and for humanity, she will guard his sacred ashes 
with all the tenderness of a motlier. Proud have we been 
of the offering we have made. But grief, tliat will not be 
comforted, is oiu's for the i3rice we have paid to Him who has 
led us to glory through anguish. As we bow \\dth the 
mourning millions of America around the open grave, and 
wait for the angel's trump to waken the martyred sleeper, 
it is fitting that we should study his marvelous character 
and inhale the fragrance of his memoiy, that we may emu- 
late his many virtues. 

The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on 
account of its symmetiy. Its comprehension is to us im- 
possible on account of its immensity, for a man can be 
comprehended only by his peers. Though we may not 
get its altitude, nor measure its girth, nor fathom its depths, 
nor estimate its richness, we may stretch our little selves 
up against it, and get somewhat of the impress of its purity, 
the inspiration of its heroism, and the impulse of its power. 



. 



6 

The foundation of his character was his moral sense. 
This contains the secret of his steadiness and consistency, 
for the first question he always asked, was, " Is it right?'' 
His moral sense was manifested in absolute truthfulness. 
It gave him moral uprightness. It kept him unseduced 
by the temptations of his profession, untainted by the cor- 
ruptions of politics, unblamable in public administration. 
It covered him like a mantle of light and purity, let fall 
upon him from the worlds out of sight. 

Gruided by an invisible hand, like a bird of passage, he 
moved ever toward his unseen destiny. Supported by the 
Infinite, he came calmly to the people, confident of the ulti- 
mate triumj^h of the right. This made him hopeful in the 
darkness and steady in the light. 

The leading faculty of his mind was his Reason. His 
ideas came out in syllogisms. His mind acted with the 
fearful certainty of logic. Toned up by his moral con- 
sciousness, his reason controlled with the inflexibility of 
despotism, every element of his being, even his passions 
and compassions, and detemiined every act of his life. He 
arrived at conclusions not by intuition, but by argument. 
This made him appear slow in diiiicult questions, but it 
gave him all the certainty of logic and the abiding convic- 
tions of duty. Thus his mental organization gave him the 
felt consciousness of power. This made inevitable that 
firmness which was more than equal to every emergency, 
and which amazed the civilized world. Once at a decision, 
he could not be moved from it. He had a quick percep- 
tion of the relations of things, and an accurate and almost 
infallible memory. These furnished the premises of his 



7 

ai'gumcnts. His deep penetration of character, and 
tliorongh knowledge of Imman nature, scrutinizing ever tlie 
motives, purposes, and possil)ilities of men, gave him the 
riglit instruments for the execution of liis phans. Here he 
was also logical rather than intuitional. Advancino; from 
facts, and not from impi'essions, he saw power in men whom 
we condemned, and rejected men to whom we clung. His 
imagination and speculative fliculties were of great native 
strength ; but they were so subjected to his reason that 
they only seemed to suggest courses of action in unprece- 
dented difficulties, and illustrated by condensed arguments 
the correctness of his positions./ Thus, in a day of our 
great impatience, we were convinced and cpiieted 1)}^ his 
saying, '' I never cross Rock River till I come to it.'' He 
confirmed our conviction of the wisdom of his renomina- 
tion, by sa3dng that, " The peo|)le will not trade horses in 
the middle of tlie stream." His wit was of the finest 
qualitv, and had a toughness and strength that often gave 
the people his own courageous hopefulness. 

Thus we half forgot our defeats after the seven da^'s' 
" change of base," when we heard him say to an applicant 
for a pass to Richmond, " ^ly passes are not honored in that 
(piarter. I have already given passes to two hundred 
thousand men wishing to go there, but they have not 3'et 
been admitted." His caution, that might have been a, fault, 
was balanced by the certainty of his reason, so that it pro- 
duced only a wise prudence. His whole character was 
rounded out into remarkable practical common sense. 
Thus his moral sense, his reason and his common sense, 
were the three fixed points through which the perfect circle 



8 



of liis cliaracter was drawn, the sacred trinity of liis great 
manliood. Had lie lacked eitlier of tliese lie would liave 
failed, and we would have been buried in tlie ruins of the 
Republic. Without the first, he would have been a villain ; 
without the second, a bigot or a fool ; without the third, 
a fimatic or a dreamer. With them all he was Abraham 
Lincoln, 

This is the analysis of his character. Let us see how it 
wrought in his life. 

His moral sense was the foundation of his character. It 
entered into all his calculations. He had ever the con- 
sciousness of the presence of Him who is above all, and 
over all, and who has ordained a standard of right which 
men may trample, but cannot repeal. This furnishes the 
key to an exalted life. Viewed from this standpoint, his 
history unfolds like a perfect argument. Starting from this, 
there is no escape from the sublime conclusions that have 
immortalized his memoiy. This gave him the ready solu- 
tion of the problems that have pei'plexed and bewildered 
other statesmen. While others have asked, " What is ex- 
pedient?'' he asked, "What is right ?" Thus he was saved 
from the endless and impossible calculations of probabili- 
ties as to results in po]oular judgment. Yet, studying the 
advantages of time and mode, he delayed while these made it 
necessary ; but when the action was possible, the decision 
was taken, and the consequences committed to Him who 
rules and over-rules according to His good pleasure. 

One result of his conscientiousness was the universal con- 
viction of his honesty. Other men have been as honest as 
he was, but I know of no public man who has enjoyed such 



. 



9 

universal confidence. This was not a wliim of tlie people 
taken up hj cliance. It was tHe inevitable consequence of 
his business and professional habits. His estimates were 
based upon value received. Because he was necessary to 
a client was no reason for increasing his fea His sense of 
moral honesty governed him where many good men do not 
seem to be sensitive. Having a pass over a railroad for his 
own pleasure, he did not feel at liberty to use it when on 
professional business. No cornmon conscience could dictate 
such convictions. The rule that determined his advocacy 
of a cause was, whether it was right Money and the 
chances for reputation in handling an important suit, were 
no temptations to him to undertake a bad cause. A gentle- 
man in this cit}^ sought his sei'vices in an important land 
suit, and he replied, "From what little I know about the 
case, I think the other man onght to have the land." But 
upon examination he changed his mind, took and won the 
suit. Once in some small suit he found he was on the 
wrong side, and tried to be released by his client, but his 
client held him to his promise. When the trial came on, 
he simpl}'- stated the points of the case, but said not one 
word about a verdict, offered no argument, and walked out 
of tlie court room. The jury could not agree. In the 
second trial he did the same ; yet the jury gave him the 
verdict, without argument, against the evidence, and against 
the law, simply because Mr. Lincoln was on that side ; 
" For," said they, " Mr. Lincoln never takes the wrong side." 
One such man is enough to dignify and ennoble a profession 
for a thousand years ; and were I a member of the Bar, I 
would cherish his memory as the devotee clings to his amulet. 



lO 

This character for honesty made Mr. Lincoln President 
of the United States. Five years ago I stood in yonder 
Wigwam, and heard the Repubhcan party announce "Hon- 
est Okl Abe " as the leader of the ticket, and I said, " By 
the grace of God we will carry the country under that 
name," 

We know somewhat of him through his Douglas cam- 
paign. But thousands throughout the length and breadth 
of the country who knew him only as " Honest Old Abe," 
voted for him on that account ; and wisely did they choose, 
for no other man could have carried us through the fearful 
night of the last four years. When his plans were too vast 
for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sub- 
lime for our participation, when it was all night about us, 
and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us — 
when not one ray shone upon our cause, when traitors were 
haaghty and exultant at tlie South, and fierce and blasphe- 
mous at the North, when the loyal men here seemed 
almost in the minority, when the stoutest hearts quailed, 
the bravest cheeks paled, when generals were defeating 
each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the 
very heart's blood of the 'prostrate Eepublic, when every- 
thing else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient 
man, standing like a rock in the storm, and said, " Mr. 
Lincoln is honest and we can trust him still." Holding to 
this single point with the energy of faith and despair we 
held together, and under God he brought us through to vic- 
tory. And to-day, in this overwhelming grief that mourns 
a cofiin in every house, we have the open judgment of man- 
kind for moral loorth. 



11 

Another cliaracteristic dependent upon liis moral sense, 
was his magnanimity. He saw all men under the eye of 
God as equals, and feeling the hight of the Infinite above 
the finite he regarded the exaltation of one man above 
another but as the crawling of one worm over another. 
Little ambitions never embarrassed him. He sought 
always to benefit and bless his fellows and not to rule over 
them. By serving all he became chiefest. No trickery 
ever marked his movements. No unfiur advantage was 
ever taken over an opponent or a rival. When promoted 
it was in spite of his request that some other man should 
be chosen. When the way was open upward he was 
always saying, "take this man or that man, he is compe- 
tent." When the committee for the nomination of dele- 
gates to the Republican Convention of 1860 met, they 
wanted men that would be true to Mr. Lincoln. Feeling 
they were not sufiiciently acquainted throughout the State, 
they went to Mr. Lincoln, stated their embarrassment, and 
asked him to name his friends. He replied, " Grentlemen, 
I can have nothing to do with this matter. If the people 
want me to be their President, they will look to that. If 
they do not want me I would not take the office. Nomi- 
nate good men." When responsibility was to be assumed 
he was always ready to step into the breach. When the 
army was defeated and the nation was demanding some- 
body's head, he said : " I am responsible if there be blame." 
When the final and most glorious triumphs came, and he 
had been down to the front, and might possibly be credited 
with it, he said, '' The glory of the plan and of the execu- 
tion is not mine. It belongs to Gren. Grant and the 



12 

noble men nnder liim. If rivals and personal enemies wlio 
had villified him were needed for high places they were 
raised to tliem all regardless of himself. He was the most 
magnanimous man that the world ever saw. 

One of the most prominent facts in his life is his repre- 
sentative character. He incarnated the ideal Eej^nblic. No 
other man ever so fully embodied the purposes, the affec- 
tions, and the power of the people. He came up among us. 
He was one of us. His birth, his education, his habits, his 
motives, his feelings, and his ambitions were all our own. 
Had he been born am.ong hereditary aristocrats he would 
not have been oui^ President. But born in the cabin, and 
reared in the field and in i\\e forest, he became the Great 
Commoner. The classics of the schools might have pol- 
ished him but they would have separated him from us. 
But trained in the common school of adversity, his cal- 
loused palms never slipped fi'om the poor man's hand. A 
child of the people, he was as accessible in the "White 
House as he had been in the cabin. The griefs of the poor 
African were as sacred to him as were the claims of the 
opulent white man. Measuring all men by their humanity, 
he found them essentially equal. Hence, his marvelous 
patience under the pressm'c upon him of the poorest people. 
He never had an equal in this. Seeing in Grod the Com- 
mon Father of all men, he saw in every man a brother. 
Making the Government the protector of every man in 
virtue of his humanity, and the creature of the majority in 
virtue of their numbers, he realized to the world in himself 
the ideal Kepublic. 

As a speaker, Mr. Lincoln suffers hut little by compari- 



13 

son with men wliose greatest or only gift lias been oratory. 
True, lie did not equal the Philipics of Demosthenes. His 
heart was too kindly, and his nature too elevated to deal in 
invective. But in the certainty of his conclusions he was 
his ^jee/-. The classics had riot polished him. But where in 
our language, or in the language of the old orators, can be 
found a sentence to surpass in dignity and power, in beauty 
and sublimity, the closing sentence of his Emancipation 
Proclamation. '• UjDon tliis act I invoke the considerate 
judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty 
God," At Getty sbiu'g the most finished and cultivated 
orator of the age delivered one of his master pieces. But 
when that has been forgotten the short speech of Mr. Lin- 
coln, on that occasion, will be green in the memories of men. 
Those who look simply at the manner and not at the mat- 
ter, who lose the man in his clothes, may not regard Mr. 
Lincoln as a marked speaker. But I appeal to you who 
have heard him — was there not that paramount something 
about his speaking that made you feel, as you left him, 
what he says is true, and he is honest ! 

As a politician, he was a leader. As an administrator, 
he was a guider. Few men, if any, ever equaled him in 
forecast of public sentiment. He seemed almost able to 
count the votes before the balloting. And the affections 
\xiih which he inspired political friends made him the leader 
of his part}^ What other man, with the advantages all 
against him, could have contended so evenly with Douglas ? 
Who could have given such strength to his party as he 
did in that campaign and in the campaign of 1860 ? 
As President it was his place to be not prow, but helm, 



14 

and riglit steadily lie guided us safely tliroiigli tlie breakers.^ 
Here we approacli the strong side of his character. As 
a statesynan, his clear, accurate, comprehensive reason, and 
strong, practical common sense, place him far above his fel- 
lows. We were so attracted by the goodness of his heart, 
that we failed to see the power of his brain. Calmlj^, 
quietl}^, patientl}'" working in the night when other men 
were asleep, he brought us out of the darkness to the day 
with movements so easy that we did not think them diffi- 
cult. Taking the lead of the nation in troubled times, 
when old landmarks were broken down, when old prece- 
dents were useless, when new paths had to be beaten, new 
difiiculties overcome, new forces controlled, new races 
recognized, the grasp and power of his intellect soon made 
him master of his position. He selected the ablest men of 
the nation for his Cabinet, and with confidence he drew 
them about himself tiTisting to his own ability to control 
them. Determined from the day of his election to be, in 
fact, the head of the Government, he chose men strong 
enough to yield to argument, and true enough to follow the 
consequences of their logic. Eivals were advanced to high 
positions, and through them he controlled their friends. 
Dangerous friends were sent abroad, where they could serve 
their country most and embaiTass him least. Ability was 
the ground of promotion, and success the tenure of office. 
Thus, by a wise use of his prerogatives, factions were ulti- 
mately harmonized and all sections united. Being rational 
rather than intuitional, he adopted measures and selected 
men from facts, rather than from impressions. This made 
him slow, but his advance was as certain as destiny. Thus 



15 

lie held on to Grant when the coiintiy demanded his head, 
and we now see that that head miglit have cost us onr liber- 
ties. Thus he dropped Fremont and others at the hight 
of their power. In one case other elements were compli- 
cated. The administration party would l)e true to the 
country under any man. The opposition, viewing things 
from a different standpoint, required management. The 
wise physician never undertakes an amputation till the pa- 
tient is strong enough to survive the operation. This case 
was no exception to the rule of his action. For it must 
ever be remembered that the foundation of a Republican 
Government is the will of the people. The Chief Magistrate 
is not proprietor. He is only the executor. Mr. Lincoln 
was the President of a Republic, not the Tyrant of a Des- 
potism. IFe were the Government; he was our servant. 
Therefore it was the consummation of statesmanship to 
adapt measures to the exigencies of the times. Had he ar- 
bitrarily fixed a purpose in the beginning and adhered to it 
to the end, we would have been lost The policy of '63 
would have desolated us in '61, and the policy of '61 would 
have ruined us in '63. Public opinion is the resultant of 
forces. It may not take the direction of any one force, but 
is modified by all the elements. In a country fifty-seven 
times as large as England, where millions of men are trained 
to tliinlc, to find the resultant is most difficult But this 
resultant determines the possibility of action. To hold 
back one section and spur up another, and thus harmonize 
all, is no small task. This Mr. Lincoln accomplished. We 
called him slow and prayed God to give him back-bone, 
when, in fact, he had the stoutest spinal column in all the 



16 

land. Seen in the light of success, which is the ultimate 
demonstration of ability, he was never ioofasi^ never too slow. 
When once he fixed his polic}' he never went back. "When 
he moved, it was forward into the opening possibilities of 
the future. He was the ultimate judge of when and how 
to act. He received suggestions and gathered information 
from all sources, but lie adopted or rejected as seemed to 
him best. A measure that would not do to-day was reject- 
ed, to be adopted to-morrow when it would do. And he 
put men up or down as the cause required. His Secretary 
of War did very much to secure his election, and, therefore, 
Mr. Lincoln was obligated to him; but Cameron had a 
theory that was too early, and grand old Stanton was called 
to his place — a wise choice — for to him, on that terrible 
Saturda}', the nation clung as to a rock. Fremont, full of 
an idea, issued a proclamation. He struck too quick and 
exceeded his powers. Mr. Lincoln revoked his order, set 
him aside, and saved Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland. 
But when the time came he had strength enough to enact 
what he had nullified. What could have been more mas- 
terly than his treatment of Vallandigham ? First, he sent 
him South where he could not induce desertions, then let 
him come home to defeat his party, which he did by his 
platform. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow 
causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contin- 
gencies seemed almost prophetic. While we in turn were 
calling him weak and stubborn and blind, Europe was 
amazed at his statesmanship, and awed into silence by the 
grandeur of his plans. Measured by what he did, Mr. Lin- 
coln is a statesman witliout a peer. He stands alone in the 



17 

world. He came to tlie government by a minority vote. 
Witliout an army, witliout a navy, without money, without 
munitions, he stepped into the midst of the most stupen- 
dous, most wide spread, most thoroughly equipped and ap- 
pointed, most deeply planned and infamous rebellion of all 
history. Traitors were in every department. Treason was 
the rule, loyalty was the exception. He was alone in 
"Washington ; armed foes were close at hand ; his friends 
were away yonder in the North, and traitors hissed and rat- 
tled all over the loyal States. He conciliated rivals, united 
friends, flanked politicians, martialed Wall-street, defeated 
Copperheads and conquered foes. He stamped upon the 
earth and two millions of armed men leaped forward. He 
spoke to the sea and the mightiest navy the world ever saw 
crowned every wave. He breathed into the air and money 
and munitions rained upon the j^eople. 

His goodness is said to have made him weak. But here 
men have misjudged him. Seeing the exalted humanity of 
the act, they have overlooked the strength of the purpose. 
He has left behind not one word or act of mere impulse or 
passion. He avowed his purpose in the beginning " to pal- 
liate — not aggrevate — the horrors of civil war." From tliis 
purpose he never moved. Suppliants at his knee, though 
of his own family, were kindly but sternly refused every 
request that did endanger the country. But when it came 
within his purpose \vide amnesties were granted to his ene- 
mies. His goodness was the highest manifestation of his 
strength. To be good when all are sweeping by in the tide 
of CAdl, to resist a thousand grievances, a thousand mali- 
cious misrepresentations, and be forever misunderstood, and 



18 

}■ et be calm, loving, iinimpassioned and forgiving, all re- 
gardless of self, is to be stronger than Eobespiere and 
miglitier tlian a hundred ISTeros. "Were I to choose but 
two scenes to represent his life they should be these : one, 
his giving the Proclamation of Emancipation, which brings 
out his firmness and his justice, and makes him the Eman- 
cipator ; the other, the restoration of the widow's son, show- 
ing justice and humanity. Poorly clad, \veeping and pale, 
she said to him, " Mr. President, I had three sons and a 
husband in the arni}^ ; my husband has just been killed, and 
I came to ask back my oldest boy." He gTanted the re- 
quest. She took the order, went to the field only to see 
that oldest son die fi-om his wounds. She went again to 
the President with the statement of the tacts by the sur- 
geon. Mr. Lincoln read tlie backing on the order and said, 
" I know what you "want, you need not ask for it, I will 
give you your next son," saying as he wrote, " you have 
one and I have one; that is about right." The poor 
woman standing by him smoothed his hair with her hands, 
saying, while her tears fell upon his head, " God bless you, 
Mr. President, may you live a thousand 3^ears and be the 
head of this great nation." This was no weak point in the 
great man's character, for his goodness was as systematic as 
his statesmanship, and into its exercise there never entered 
merely personal motives. Constitutionally merciful, he was 
also constitutionally logical and conscientious. Above his 
mercy stood his reason, to detect the possible consequence of 
any action, and behind that was his moral sense to bow him 
to the dictates of his judgment in spite of the impulses of 
his heart. No man ever surpassed him in the subjection of 



19 

liis life to his convictions. Weak, lie 7vas called, bnt now, 
all tlioughtful men admit his great firmness/ His almost 
prophetic foresight of contingencies required the firmness of 
a martyr to hold him to plans incomprehensible to extrem- 
ists who clamored for measures that would have been fatal. 
Sometimes he stood alone against the body of Congress, but 
Congress always yielded, and the end justified the action. 
Had he consented to the Confiscation Bill of '61, with all 
its provisions, his amnesty would never have thinned the 
rebel ranks. He sent three questions to the War Commit- 
tee concerning the arming of the negroes, to be put to all 
the Generals that came before it. They were presented to 
ninety -two Generals ; of that number, eighty -five answered 
firmly against the policy, two Major Generals and five 
Brigadiers answered for it. The next day, after the report 
was made to him by the War Committee, he issued his 
order for arming the negroes. Good he was, and compas- 
sionate ; but no firmer man ever held the reins of power. 
He was mercy mailed in justice. / He was taken from us 
not because he would have proved unequal to the hour to 
come, but rather because we were underrating the terrible 
crime of slavery that has caused all our woe. In the joy of 
victory we were willing to pardon for peace, and I verily 
believe that the future policy of Mr. Lincoln, as indicated 
to Secretary Seward, would have called down upon his 
head the curses of Christendom. But now all mouths are 
stopped as by his gaping wounds we have revealed to us 
the fearful enormity of the crime. He led us safely in the 
past when he alone could have done it, and he would have 
been equal to the future, but his fall has stricken all our 



20 

hearts, lias opened tlie eyes of the world to see slavery as 
the sum of all villainies. 

This woe has fallen upon us because we are living for the 
admonition of all time to come, to show mankind the solu- 
tion of the problem of sin, and to demonstrate the power of 
free government. I must reject the theory that seeks the 
explanation of this providence in any supposed weakness of 
this wonderful man. For taken all and in all he rises head 
and shoulders above every other man of six thousand years. 
I would not pluck one laurel from the statues of the noble 
dead ; I would rather place in their midst another statue 
that shall adorn and honor their glorified companj-. "We 
are indeed too near Mr. Lincoln to award him the glory he 
deserves. We remember too well his long, lank form, his 
soiled clothing, his awkward movements, to realize that this 
man, standing among us like a father, yet looms above us 
like a monarch. I turn to the past ; I see behind me a 
noble company. There is Napoleon, the man of destiny. 
Armies move at his bid as if they were the muscles of his 
body ; kings rise and fall at his nod, but he lived for him- 
self His entire life was a failure. He did not [accomplish 
one of his great purposes. I see a Wellington ; great as a 
military chieftain, competent to command armies against a 
foreign and hereditary foe. I see Marlborough, but on every 
stone of his monument and in every page of his history I 
see the frauds by which he enriched himself from the plun- 
der of his country. There is Cromwell, a fine old man, 
England's noblest son ; but his arena was small, the work 
he undertook limited, the work he accomplished ephemeral. 
The revolution from the hereditary kingdom of the Stewarts 



21 

to the hereditary dictatorship of the Cromwells was not so 
great as the change from executing the Fugitive Slave Law 
in Boston to the Constitutional Emancipation of the slave in 
Maryland. Yet, upon his death the Government reverted 
to the Stuarts, but upon the death of Abraham Lincoln, 
Freedom rears a monument, and for new conquests marches 
boldly into the future. I do see a Ctesar j^onder, but his 
power is the purchase of fraud and crime^ and falls about 
his grave like withered weeds. And away down yonder in 
the dark vortex of history, looking out ujion the centuries, 
is old Pericles, But the thirty thousand citizens of Athens 
are lost in some inland town of America with her thirty 
millions of citizens. There are many noble heroes who 
illumine the darkness behind us with the radiance of some 
single virtue, but among them all I see no Lincoln. He is 
radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed 
a glory upon this age that shall Jill ilie eyes of men as they 
look into history. Other men have excelled him in some 
one point, but, taken at all points, all and in all he stands 
head and shoulders above every other man of six thousand 
years./ An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils 
of unparalleled civil war. A Statesman, he justilied his 
measures by their success. A Philanthropist, he gave lib- 
erty to one race and salvation to another. A Moralist, he 
bowed from the summit of human power to the foot of the 
Cross and became a Christian. A Mediator, he exercised 
mercy under the most absolute abeyance to law. A Leader, 
he was no partisan. A Commander, he was untainted with 
blood. A Euler in des^^arate times, he was unsullied with 
crime. A man, he has left no word of passion, no thought 



22 

of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of 
selfish ambition. Thus perfected wdthout a model and with- 
out a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to 
adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in 
our humanity, and to present to all coming time the repre- 
sentative of the divine idea of Free government A child 
of the people, the poor man's fiiend ; want was the passport 
to his heart, and helplessness the signal for his power. As 
the Great Father would not suffer David, though a man 
after His own heart, to build His temple, because he was a 
man of blood, so in our time He has resented the just work 
of retribution for others, and having completed the great 
Temple of Freedom by the hands of Abraham Lincoln, He 
takes his spotless soul to Himself and sends his memory to 
history hallowed by his martyrdom to Liberty, 



LB S '12 



